Track Santa on the Web or Cellphone

Published: Saturday, December 21, 2013 at 1:16 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, December 21, 2013 at 1:16 a.m.

It's the holiday season, and in this day and age, even Santa's sleigh gets a few potshots.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa's Christmas Eve trip from the North Pole since it was formed in 1958. That's when it picked up the tradition that began in 1955 when a newspaper advertisement for Sears misprinted a number for children to call Santa.

The incorrect number reached the crew commander at the Air Defense Command Operations Center, who played along with the child on the other end.

Over the decades, NORAD has gotten quite sophisticated with Santa tracking — there's an app for that.

This year, the video trailer promoting the NORAD tracking site included some military jets escorting the sleigh, which drew criticism from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and some other organizations.

Josh Golin, the coalition's associate director, told reporters that the coalition didn't know about the jet fighters in the video until he was contacted by a reporter, and thus it was "a media-manufactured controversy. Nobody in my organization was out there protesting." He expanded on that in an interview published Wednesday in The Los Angeles Times, saying the group is against any advertising aimed at impressionable minds:

"What's getting lost in the controversy is the child-development piece. It's easy for adults to look at the video above and say ‘What's the big deal?' But we are talking about 4-year-olds and 6-year-olds. For young children, the idea of Santa, and that there are ‘bad guys' who might want to ‘get' Santa, so he needs the jets, that can be very disturbing."

NORAD spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the NORAD videos only had fighter escorts for Santa while flying over the U.S. and Canada. And, he added, the fighters in the video were not harmed. They are Canadian Air Force CF-18s. A large external fuel tank under the plane's belly might be misconstrued as a bomb; the planes' armament racks on the wings are empty, he said.

The controversy has resulted in an upshot of viewers seeking out NORAD's trailer that it posted on YouTube. By Monday, it had about 265,000 views; by Wednesday night, the figure had reached nearly 320,000.

"That's way off the charts for any other videos we've done before," Davis said. The video can be reached through this link: www.tinyurl.com/SantaJets.

Davis added that Santa's mad dash "involves flying through all manner of airspace, whether it is open, controlled, restricted, prohibited or disputed. He does not file a flight plan with anybody." Santa also uses his cellphone during takeoff and landing.

NORAD's Santa Tracker website may be found at www.noradsanta.org. It has a holiday countdown clock, games, videos and puzzles. It is available in eight languages. Santa-tracking apps are available for Windows, Android and Apple operating systems.

[ Lonnie Brown has written the computer column for The Ledger for more than 30 years. He can be reached by email at LedgerDatabase@aol.com. ]

<p>It's the holiday season, and in this day and age, even Santa's sleigh gets a few potshots.</p><p>The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa's Christmas Eve trip from the North Pole since it was formed in 1958. That's when it picked up the tradition that began in 1955 when a newspaper advertisement for Sears misprinted a number for children to call Santa. </p><p>The incorrect number reached the crew commander at the Air Defense Command Operations Center, who played along with the child on the other end.</p><p>Over the decades, NORAD has gotten quite sophisticated with Santa tracking — there's an app for that.</p><p>This year, the video trailer promoting the NORAD tracking site included some military jets escorting the sleigh, which drew criticism from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and some other organizations.</p><p>Josh Golin, the coalition's associate director, told reporters that the coalition didn't know about the jet fighters in the video until he was contacted by a reporter, and thus it was "a media-manufactured controversy. Nobody in my organization was out there protesting." He expanded on that in an interview published Wednesday in The Los Angeles Times, saying the group is against any advertising aimed at impressionable minds:</p><p>"What's getting lost in the controversy is the child-development piece. It's easy for adults to look at the video above and say 'What's the big deal?' But we are talking about 4-year-olds and 6-year-olds. For young children, the idea of Santa, and that there are 'bad guys' who might want to 'get' Santa, so he needs the jets, that can be very disturbing."</p><p>NORAD spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the NORAD videos only had fighter escorts for Santa while flying over the U.S. and Canada. And, he added, the fighters in the video were not harmed. They are Canadian Air Force CF-18s. A large external fuel tank under the plane's belly might be misconstrued as a bomb; the planes' armament racks on the wings are empty, he said.</p><p>The controversy has resulted in an upshot of viewers seeking out NORAD's trailer that it posted on YouTube. By Monday, it had about 265,000 views; by Wednesday night, the figure had reached nearly 320,000.</p><p>"That's way off the charts for any other videos we've done before," Davis said. The video can be reached through this link: www.tinyurl.com/SantaJets.</p><p>Davis added that Santa's mad dash "involves flying through all manner of airspace, whether it is open, controlled, restricted, prohibited or disputed. He does not file a flight plan with anybody." Santa also uses his cellphone during takeoff and landing.</p><p>NORAD's Santa Tracker website may be found at www.noradsanta.org. It has a holiday countdown clock, games, videos and puzzles. It is available in eight languages. Santa-tracking apps are available for Windows, Android and Apple operating systems.</p><p>[ Lonnie Brown has written the computer column for The Ledger for more than 30 years. He can be reached by email at LedgerDatabase@aol.com. ]</p>